~~library and reading books~~

Yesterday evening I was little bit free and went on a stroll to our department library. Located in the basement of our building its a quiet and calm place.There are journals from all around then globe that I can read the copy of Indian Express,Economic times or glance through other newspapers around the world.Then they have advanced data center lab which can be used to collect data statistics around the world.

The main thing is the book collection were a person can easily get lost. The number of books they have would turn my dad's collection into peanuts. I looked for the Indian section of it and lost my count in the number of books and various titles they have.I was reading an article in nytimes about the importance of reading books.It was said "that kids who grow up in a home with 500 books stay in school longer and do better" and if that was case I was imagining I would have to stay in the school life long.

~~What a relief~~

From the day I remember I was made to wear formal dress from school to college till the company I worked for. Given the hot climate in India that kind of attire is more than a curse,the time spent wearing it,ironing the stuffs and finally if wear it and goes out within few mintues the body will get drenched in sweat.I never knew whom did I please wearing those kinds of dresses or even the people who formed those rules would have never known why they keeping those.

The day one of the orientation I choose to wear formals and from there on I m in (my)formals.Just grabbing a shorts and a t shirt in the morning getting ready within minutes.Also its really really comfortable in this hot weather. Cant imagine wearing that kind of attire to my college or my company.Only problem I have is that I have a large collection of formals which I have pushed to the bottom of the shelves,never know when I m going to use them.

~~Adapting to the NYC life~~

Settling down in the city comes with interacting with new people,learning new things,exploring places finding right shops restaurants etc in short getting adapted to the way city lives. I think in a matter of one month my walking speed will increase by few km/hr. Habbits take time to die as I looked the right side first to cross the road and realised my mistake after crossing the first half of it.There were times I made a fool of myself waiting for the door to open to enter the shop and a kid guiding me the right way as that was at the exit of the shop

Other things I like about are the people with whom I interact in the customer care side or in business what they call as moments of truth,they make us more comfortable make our lifes easier. Its more like having a chat than making business. It was wonderful talking with lady at International students Service Organisation who wanted to visit the country and asking about the places there. The guy who helped me opening the bank was more interested in telling things about the city and life there,he patiently took more than 20 minutes to explaing the banking procedures,building credit history and stuffs.Finally he asked how long I need this account I said 14 months and he replied back "you never know man this might be the city for you". Both of them before entering my date of birth in system wished me a belated wish.

With bank account created its time to get money :)

~~1st day in college~~

Its was blazing hot today in NYC and when I reached my class I was drenched,the director of the program welcomed me saying that we have exported the weather from your country just for you.It was an interesting day in the class never I have talked with people from many countries on a single day. In my class there were around 45 people from 32 different countries. A diversed crowd indeed.

It was a day I came to know of few countries which I haven't known before like Sao Tome and Principe. It is good to know I share the class with lawyer,mayor,TV anchor and people from different area of business.And to end the day I tried to take a maths test found myself staring blank at the paper for few mintues and then gave the paper back. Its time to catch up stuffs!!!

~First few days in US~~

What I was upto the last four days written by Ganesh(from google wave) :)

Jul 2: Kicked-off with taking sri to temple for his b'day, followed by delicious indian buffett... Fresh from chennai, sri did not taste the traditional south indian dishes and settled for northy dishes... (waiting for the day when sri dried-up from NYC food comes jolling for southy dishes..)





Jul 3: Sri will never forget this day... 1st experience of "seeing" americans in long-weekend spirit...

Took sri to shopping outlets to equip 2 survive in NYC. Wide-eyed/mouthed, sri "enjoyed" Cing lovely people around and need to grab hold of sri and drag him to shops... purchased of load of stuff for sri to conquer his quest here.

Then off to the "sin city of the east coast" (Atlantic city) for sri to try his LUCK.. hoping his lady luck would work her charm and bring him a fortune... Again, sri got excited seeing the people around in the boardwalk next to the beach and wanted to rampage thru the casinos. We really had to try hard keep sri on the ground and bring him back home (sri did not want to overwork the lady luck...).

For "other" details on what sri did in AC, need to open a separate wave (not for the faint-hearts... oh my!! you could never imagine what sri is capable of...)



July 4: Took sri out to see the Independence day fireworks... and to celebrate sri's last day of "independence" for next 14 months... sri was awestruck by the fireworks and (again, now a common feature with sri) seeing "kilis" in the park... Sri signed-off his independence in style.



July 5: With a truck load of sri's goods, dropped of sri at his NYC apartment. Typical of NYC apt buildings, the space is small. But being close to the Columbia campus and lots of amenities around, sri would have a good time there. Plus, loads of young crowd around to give sri company (pani vizhum malar vanam...)

Movies I saw...

Good thing about taking British airways is the number of movies you can choose to watch,it has collections ranging from the latest to classic from different languages.
Movies I saw during the journey are

Dear John
This is wonderful romantic movie between a college girl and a Military man. They exchange their love via letters but somethings happen which is out of their control. A touching movie which I liked a lot.

Shutter Island:
Leonardo Di Capiro plays a role of a detective, it was a electrifying thriller the ending was similar to most of the thriller movies.

Ondine:
Its a Irish movie which goes on telling about a relationship about a fisherman and a woman he meets.He goes on tells his daughter that he caught a mermaid and story goes about the relationship between those two.

~~Watching worldcup at Heathrow~~

When I booked ticket to USA I found that taking a late flight from London turned out to be economical.So I had a 5 hour stop over at Heathrow.Once I reached the airport I cleared my way through the securities.The airport as told by many people looked like a mall and since I didn't want burn my pockets I was looking for a silent place to throw my back.

I found a place near domestic lounge which was not crowded, before I was about to close my eyes a beautiful girl asked me do you have 5 minutes,since I had more than 5hours in the pocket I was generous enough to give her more than that.Seems she is a BA apprentice and was conducting a survey about the feel good factor of the airport.
So she was asking me the questions how easy I was able to navigate in the airport,did you ask for guidance,how clean the airport was,was I satisfied with the facilities there etc. Having the Chennai airport experience at my back of my mind I gave overwhelming response to the survey which made her happy.

Then I went to starbucks store got a cup of coffee and went to book stall and got a copy of that day's SUN(newspaper). England had been defeat againsted Germany and the anger was evident on all pages of the paper.The best quote I liked was "Had the England defence been the same as yesterday during the World War 2 we would be speaking German".There were columns thrashing the coach and the players pointing out having the costliest coach,highly paid players and the biggest preimier league the country couldn't even proceed to final 8. And all in all it was not a defeat but humiliation.

Then I found a right place near the big screen to watch netherlands vs slovakia worldcup match that was about to place. Once the game started the excitement began to set in.What was once a silent and diplomatic crowd turned out cheer the players and the whole place turned electrifying.It was wonderful to see a football with people from different countries sitting around cheering for the love of the game. I imagined how would the atmosphere would have been for England~Germany match.
Once the match was over with Holland comfortably winning over Slovakia it was time to catch my flight.

I was thinking how would I kill my time there but it flew away quicky and moreover I enjoyed it!